There was an error starting Zotero

dannilamb
Hi,

I'm unable to start Zotero standalone, and keep getting the error message "There was an error starting Zotero". I had this problem a few weeks ago and was only able to resolve it by uninstalling and reinstalling (removing personal data and customizations). However this took about 6 hours in total to complete, so if there's another way to fix this problem I'd be very grateful to hear it.

Many thanks in advance for any help.

Danni
  • adomasven
    Is your Zotero data directory stored in a Dropbox (or similar syncing) directory? That would lead to Zotero database corruption and in turn a problem you describe.
  • dannilamb
    I do use Dropbox, but not to store my Zotero data. Zotero is on my C: drive "C:\Program Files (x86)\Zotero Standalone". This problem is only occurring on my machine at work, which is a 'managed desktop', whatever that means. It has worked with no problems for several years until recently.
  • adomasven
    By Zotero data directory I meant this https://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data

    If your OS user profile directory is stored on a network drive then that will almost certainly be the culprit (which is probably the case with your "managed desktop"). You should make sure Zotero data directory is stored on your local work machine, otherwise you are bound to get these problems again.

    To quickly recover your data you might be able to restore from one of the automatic backups. Make sure you back up the date directory before attempting. Otherwise if you use syncing you could just delete the zotero.sqlite and Zotero should pull down the data from the server.
  • dannilamb
    Thanks, I found where the data directory was stored, and it was on a network drive, so seems like that was the problem (though I'm not clear why it has worked for so long and only recently been problematic - some change the IT team here have made to the network recently?).

    I couldn't get it to work again though, so have uninstalled and reinstalled standalone. It's automatically set the data directory to be on the same network drive as previously. I've tried to change this to the hard drive in Preferences>Advanced>Files and Folder. It said that standalone would close and I needed to manually move the files to the new location, which I've done, apart from two files called zotero.sqlite-journal, which it won't copy across (it says 'This file is currently not available for use on this computer'). I've tried starting standalone without these files being copied across, but it has opened again as though I have just newly installed it (it took 5 minutes to actually open) and has reverted the data directory location to the original network drive.

    I tried to set the data directory location before syncing my (large) library, so can quickly uninstall and reinstall again if this is needed, but am unclear how to solve this problem of not being able to set a new location for the data directory.
  • adomasven
    Just to note reinstalling Zotero has no effect on its preferences (or contents of the data directory), so that will certainly not solve any problems. The proper way to change the data directory is:

    1) Tell Zotero where the new directory is
    2) Move the contents of old data directory to the specified location while Zotero is closed

    You should make sure Zotero is closed while you move the files. It certainly works, so you must have done something wrong. On the other hand if you failed to get any of the automated backups to work and you didn't include a zotero.sqlite in the new data directory then that would have caused Zotero to revert to the default location (which is on your network drive).

    If you want to restore from your Zotero account you can still keep the old storage directory and files since those are unlikely to be corrupt and will save you time and bandwidth redownloading. You should allow Zotero to create a full data directory including a zotero.sqlite file and move it somewhere on the machine with the procedure above, but include your old storage instead of the newly created one.
  • dannilamb
    I reinstalled because it wouldn't open, not in order to change the directory location.

    I did 1) above (telling Zotero the new directory location on the hard drive), Zotero closed, I cut and pasted the entire Zotero data directory folder from the network drive to the hard drive. This is the point at which it refused to move the zotero.sqlite-journal files. The zotero.sqlite file copied across with no problem so is on the hard drive.

    I'm unclear what I've done wrong, or what I can now do to make this work given that the zotero.sqlite-journal files are not letting me move them.
  • adomasven
    zotero.sqlite-journal not moving wouldn't have been a problem. The file is not important to change the data directory. However, if Zotero does not find a zotero.sqlite file in the directory that you specify as your new data directory you should see an error prompt after restart with an option to select a directory or use the default.

    The procedure certainly works, unless something is extraordinarily weird on your system, which is highly unlikely. Try restarting the computer, make sure you are only logged in into your account within your organisation/workplace from only one machine and try again. We can do advanced troubleshooting, but it shouldn't be necessary.
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